Thoughts!

Frequently here at Lost in Criterion we bring up the "death of the author" with a few different understandings, but ultimately they all boil down to this: one can, and often must, separate a piece of art and the artist responsible for it. It is possible to admire a work even if the creator did something reprehensible.

That being said, while Roman Polanski did a terrible thing, he also created a fairly terrible movie. Knife in the Water has a few things going for it, principally the technical prowess of filming on the small yacht and the political climate it was made in. But it's just not that good. And I really wanted to get through this whole episode without even mentioning that the man is a child rapist, but then I watched an interview with him and read a relevant portion of his biography, learning about how he found star Jolanta Umecka while "scouting" at a local swimming pool and how Polanski spent the shoot trying to keep her from eating, and from there I realized that Roman Polanski has a terrible view of women that infects everything he does. So that terrible thing is brought up, because its relevant. So, trigger warning, because we briefly discuss the rape of a 13 year old girl in this episode.

I don't know what to say that I didn't already say in the main post, so please click through to that and read away.

Like Resnais' Night and Fog, William Deterle's The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941) is a film I consider important not for the artistic form -- though Deterle is no slouch in producing a lovely film -- but in message. This Faustian tale isn't just about one man trying to win his soul back from the Devil, but makes hints that the entire nation need do so.

Laurence Olivier adapts, directs, and stars in Richard III, a film where a power-mad political outsider with a distinct speech pattern and physical features. His ascension to power allows him to imprison his political enemies and leads to a war.

Fortunately, he is deposed before he does too much damage. That doesn't always happen.

Ingmar Bergman made a lot of movies, but Vilgot Sjoman (who we last saw with I am Curious) made this one in particular. Not actually a film, but a 5 part miniseries for Swedish television, Sjoman was interested in showing Bergman's process. Bergman was interested only as far as it didn't interfere with his process. So when it did they just faked it. Hooray!